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New Plymouth half marathon

Date: 2 October 2016
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 2:31.27
Previous: 2011

In sight of the finish – a good reason to smile! [Pic courtesy of NP Joggers & Walkers]
A drizzly morning to start off with.
Runners and walkers huddled up under the pavilion roof.
New Plymouth mates, Henriette and Des.
A fair amount of participants in the 21.1km event.
Lovely downhill in the first kilometre or two taking you to the lowest point on the course.
Gerry having a very relaxed morning out.
Dark clouds coming from the sea.
And event darker clouds from the mountain side.
Happy helpers at the first water point.
One of the biggies in the first half – the hill that goes straight up.
Halfway! Yay! Downhill from here, right?
Gerry catching up after the last water point.
Beautiful countryside.
Happy to find some of my favourite colour!
Glad to have made it one more time to the finish of a half marathon.

We have now officially exhausted the last bit of our running memory. No more long-runs without a bit of training first.

When friends invited us to join them for the half marathon, I thought to myself, yeah, why not. So we entered, knowing very well that I’m tempting fate (more accurately, tickling the lion’s testicles) and it’s only a matter of time before the wheels come off. As it rightfully did. Continue reading →

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Running on memory

Date: 18 September 2016
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 2:21
Previous: 2011, 2014, 2015

If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right. 😀 Photo by Caroline Williams.
Shortly before the start, with all the Hatuma Lime Half branded Ts.
Gerry even donned his T from last year.
The out-and-back section, before heading into the countryside.
We started off on an easy jog so before the end of the out-and-back section we were already right at the back of the pack.
An easy run, with Graeme keeping us company.
Gerry and Graeme enjoying the open road.
A glorious day to be out in the country for a run.
Water point with fruit chew toffees! What a nice treat.
The third water point, signalling the arrival of the last quarter of the race. Water points doubled as change-overs for the 4-person relay teams, so were spaced roughly 5km apart. Plus a bonus water point roughly two kilometres from the finish.

All photos by us, except where otherwise indicated.

The Hatuma Lime Half Marathon reminds me of a mini-Rotorua marathon: once you’ve done the first busy section through town (in this case, the short out-and-back stretch outside the race course), you head into the country where on a good weather day, you cannot ask for a better setting while you make your way around a lake (Lake Hatuma here). Great community support on country roads where you can just cruise along admiring the scenery, until you reach the final quarter of the event – the stretch from the airport (a small rural air strip in this instance) which takes you back through town, not as scenic and also the toughest part to the finish. Continue reading →

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A “user-friendly” test in endurance

Some quick planning the night before, over a tipple.
At the beginning … there were two clean, non-sore runners …
After a while, the sun came through …
… and rumours of severe weather warnings seemed far off the mark.
Fuelled with fries (stupid, stupid), we suffered through a very difficult third interval.
Interval 4 around Massey campus was the first of the dark runs.
When will this end??
Around 2:30am, soaking wet, we were almost finished with our sixth interval.
Interval 7. Now we may as well push through. So close.
And what a wonderful treat to be joined by Graeme (all the way from Whanganui) and June!

When Gerry first told me about the Ultra Interval Challenge, I was very excited as this sort of thing is right up my alley. It is a worldwide initiative where everybody started at the exact same time, irrespective of where you are in the world. In NZ our starting time was 10am on 23 July. The idea was to run 10km every three hours over a 24-hour period. Therefore 8x10km, totalling 80km. Our initial intention was to turn it into a wee event, by having a base camp with supplies, access to toilets, etc, and hopefully, manage to lure some friends into joining, but then we got busy with other stuff and all but forget about the challenge. Continue reading →

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Tauhara Half Marathon

3 July 2016
Distance: 21.1km
Time: 2:48.56

Beautiful Mt Ruapehu.
Icy roads causing accidents and a holdup on the way.
Mr Ngaurahue.
And away we go, just in time to catch the last participants crossing the narrow start chute.
The wide open area of the paddock helped to quickly spread out the field.
Up and up we went.
Until we came across this little congested bottleneck.
A beautiful sunny morning and crisp air.
This is one of the worst bits.
A nice and easy stretch on the edge of the forest.
The first water point with freezingly cold water.
Cold, cold, cold in the forest.
Finally a bit of sun again.
The start of the out-and-back stretch up a shingle/gravel road.
Gerry at the turning point and second water station.
Frosty conditions and very cold temperatures kept us going to try and keep warm.
What does this even mean?
It almost felt like we were running in a freezer.
The final, very chirpy waterpoint.
Frozen soil.
The long walk up a 1.5km hill, 3km before the finish.
Finally the finish area came into sight.
Back on the cattle tracks.
A long queue of participants waiting for a sausage sizzle and a beer.
Glad we did!

After four days on the road travelling to Auckland, back down to Wellington and back to Palmy the night before the Tauhara, I was a little reluctant to get up at 4am to travel to Taupo for this event. It was just all becoming a little too much. But, we were entered, and events usually cheer me up, so despite no running (and a lot of sitting!) for four days, we took to the road once again to see what this event was all about. Continue reading →